CARE warns that agreement on REDD could be used as "green wash".
COPENHAGEN (December 18, 2009) – As the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen enter into their last day, CARE International warns that the agreement on REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) might be used to disguise a weak overall climate deal. “Having an agreement on REDD in Copenhagen outside a comprehensive climate deal is like polishing the hubcaps on a car with no engine. It looks nice but wont take you very far”, says Raja Jarrah, CARE’s expert on REDD. The REDD mechanism to protect natural forests has been one of the key debates at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.
Even though the draft text on REDD has so far found the greatest consensus by negotiators, several important issues have been left in brackets for ministers to decide. The most important of these is the requirement to ensure that the rights of forest dependent communities are protected. Three hundred million people depend on the forest for their livelihoods, and forests cannot be effectively protected without their full involvement. They must share in the benefits of REDD.
However, even if these gaps are sorted out in the final text, a good-looking REDD agreement is worth little if there is no global agreement on the limiting of emissions. “It is vitally important to stop the destruction of the rainforest. But this must go hand in hand with drastically reducing emissions from fossil fuels”, Jarrah continues. If emissions continue on their current path and global temperatures rise above 2°C, climate change will have a disastrous impact both on forests and on the livelihoods of poor communities.
“How can we ask countries with tropical forests to reduce their emissions, but not countries with factories to do the same?”, Jarrah asks. He points out, that developed nations have to commit to massive reductions in industrial emissions. But while world leaders meet in Copenhagen to sign a final deal, CARE fears that their commitment and political will lags behind the moral obligation and historical responsibility to assist poor and vulnerable people coping with a changing climate.
“The language at the beginning of the Copenhagen negotiations spoke of a fair, ambitious and binding agreement. Now everyone talks about a reasonable, balanced and achievable result”, CARE’s Raja Jarrah says. “This slippage of expectations tells the whole story, we are missing the political will for a real solution”.
For further information or interviews, please contact CARE Media Coordinators:
Marie Sisse Brown: +45 53 72 72 40, [email protected]
Sandra Bulling: + 45 53 11 26 44, [email protected]
CARE is a leading aid organisation with more than 60 years’ experience fighting global poverty and delivering emergency assistance. In 72 countries, CARE works with the poorest communities to improve basic health and education, enhance rural livelihoods and food security, increase access to clean water and sanitation, and expand economic opportunity. Our long-term development assistance and emergency relief initiatives are currently benefiting about 55 million people around the world. In response to the growing crisis, CARE is helping the most world’s most vulnerable communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.